and we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track. >> and before the sun even comes up here on the east coast, we know the impact. it's devastating and massive. at 5:29 a.m. here on the east, sandy now classified as a post tropical cyclone pushing inland through pennsylvania after a night of destruction that hasn't even begun to have been assessed. 7.1 million people are left without power. i'm willie geist. this is "way too early." sandy slammed into the jersey shore with winds 80 miles per hour. more in some places, bringing with it an overwhelming storm surge. the associated press reports at least 16 deaths are now being blamed on sandy across seven states. the combination of floodwaters and loss of tractor-trailer kele emergency at langone medical center, forced to evacuate hundreds of patients including infants from the neo-natal

intensive care unit after backup power failed. more on that incredible story in just a moment. first, let's go up to bill karins for the very latest on this storm. bill, where are we right now? >> we're about 95% done with all the damage that this storm has produced. and, again, the majority of it was last night at about 8:00 p.m. as we had the high tide cycles right along the jersey coast. of course, with those gusty hurricane-force winds that we dealt with all yesterday afternoon and evening. but i still have concerns this morning. we have the next high tide cycle approaching areas that had the devastation last night. this will not be as high. the storm is a little weaker, a little further inland. it will be much higher than normal. we'll have more minor damage occurring at this high tide cycle. the next one in new york city down by battery park is just after 9:00 a.m. this morning. it is not expected to be high enough this time to flood the streets and flood the subways like the one did last night at 8:00. but we still need to watch it. it is still going to be much higher than normal. the one last night was 13 feet. this one should be more like 9 feet or 8 feet, more similar to

what we saw monday morning. so that's the one big concern we're going to deal with as we go throughout the morning hours. the other issue we're dealing with as we go throughout the morning is we're going to continue to watch the gusty winds out there and the temperatures. we now have seven million people in this region without power. and now we have the cold winter time air moving in behind this storm. look at the temperature in d.c. right now, 44. the wind chill is 36. these people don't have power. the temperatures in their house have been dropping all night long. and the wind chill even in new york city now is 47. so all the two million people in jersey without power have wind chills now in the low to mid 40s. the temperatures are going to be cool. it's going to be chilly. there will not be any sunshine today. it is just going to be a raw day out there, willie. those are pretty much my two big concerns. and then, of course, we have the snowstorm on the back of this. it is advised no one travel in west virginia right now and portions of southern ohio. intense snowfall rates. you don't want to get stuck in your vehicle with hurricane type

conditions with snow. and so we're not done yet, willie. most of the damage is done. we still have dangerous weather out there that could be life threatening this morning. >> it continues today. bill karins has been up all day and all night. we appreciate it, bill. floodwaters along the coastline of new york city made it very difficult all night for first responders here to reach a massive six alarm fire that is burning in the borough of queens. the fire broke out in breezy point destroying 50 homes on the rockaway peninsula that jets out into the atlantic ocean. more than 170 firefighters responded to the inferno which broke out around 11:00. there's no word on what started the fire yet. luckily only two people suffered minor injuries. elsewhere, right now, there are over 600,000 con ed customers as luke at that live picture of new york city without power. that is in new york and the surrounding buoroughs. among the problems was a massive

explosion at a con-ed substation on 14th street. you see it right here. likely caused by flood organize flying debris. the new york stock exchange will be closed for a second straight day to day. also, the midtown crane you may have heard about partially collapsed at the beginning of this storm is still dangling at this hour from a high-rise about 74 stories above the street. that's on 57th street in midtown. that block remains closed as officials figure out how to get this thing down safely. at ground zero, seawater flooded through the construction site there as low lying streets and neighborhoods along the east and hudson rivers were swamped. in chelsea, high winds tore off the face of an apartment building leaving it looking like a doll house. a storage surge 15 feet high hitman hat an breaking a record that dated back to 1960. and new york city subway system could be crippled now for at least days as floodwaters

breached a number of underground stations. the mta's chairman put out a statement reading in part "the new york city subway system is 108 years old but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we've experienced last night. hurricane sandy reeked half 5:00 on our entire transportation system. our employees never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now." seven subway suntunnels flood. further east, flooding began to spread across long island the full 12 hours before the center of the storm made land fall further south. greg cergol is live about 80 miles from here in new york. greg? >> reporter: here in riverhead, we just got hit with a down pour of rain, a reminder that sandy is not completely out of the picture yet. but for most part, the worst of the storm seems over. now nassau police have now identified the roslyn man that

was killed last night. he went outside to move his car when struck and killed by a tree limb. a harvard man was also killed by a falling tree yesterday. john miller was preparing to leave his home with wife and two young daughters whether the tree hit him. neither his wife nor his daughters were injured in the horrible incident. contrasting the two tragedies, a number of triumphs yesterday, acts of heroism and bravery by first responders and others. one of those taking place right here in riverhead. ambulances from the bay traveled east to greenport to rescue 12 patients from the eastern long island hospital as floodwaters were beginning to surround that hospital. the patients were brought here to riverhead. they're all doing well at a hospital that's being powered by generators. >> decisions were made around

12:00 noon with the approaching water and the rising tides for the sake of the safety of patients. we worked collectively with the management team and we began moving 13 patients to the area. >> so was eastern long island hospital in freeport, the waters were approaching, they had to get the patients out and you got them out? >> that's right. they're right on the water. and water was coming over the bulkhead. that was the right decision to make. >> reporter: we're in riverred, i'm greg cergol, back to you. >> greg, thanks so much. it was a dire situation several blocks south of here when the power went out and then back up generators failed at the nyu langone medical center. there was a mid storm evacuation of 215 patients including those in critical care and 20 infants from an neo-natal intensive care unit.

dozens of ambulances lined up outside to transport the evacuees to nearby mt. sinai hospital. officials say they had limited phone access and would notify families as the patients arrived. joining us live outside the nyu medical center, lori bordinaro. i was watching the pictures and gripped by them late last night of nurses carrying newborn infants in their arms with another nurse performing man you'll ventilati manual ventilation. >> i know. it's been a huge team effort here as you said of doctors, nurses, and emergency responders trying to get these 215 patients out of nyu langone medical center and to the other hospitals all because that backup generator failed. it's been a very tedious process, one that started well before midnight. still going on at this hour. there were newborn babies being taken out, other patients as

well in critical care. they had to carry the patients down the stairs, out the lobby, out into these ambulances that have been lined up along first avenue for several hours. many of the patients again from the neo-natal unit. we saw the newborn being carried out. other pediatric patients and adult critical care patients and obstetrics patients. they're all being taken over mount sinai. certainly this wasn't something that hospital expected. it's not clear what happened to that backup generator. but right now they're just trying to take these necessary steps to get these patients the care that they needed and to get them safe at this point. but again, the families are being notified by the hospital that's are admitting them. because the phones here at this hospital aren't working. willie, back to you. >> lori, there are tough questions to answer about what happened to that generator. the nurses should have never been in that position. they did it and did it heroically. do we know about the status of any of the 215 patients?

is everybody okay this morning? >> reporter: at this point, all they're saying at this point is that everything -- nyu is saying that everything went well. again, they were taken to several different hospitals in the area. at this point, no, it's not clear what their conditions are. i saw a lot of them being taken out. it seemed like everything was running smoothly. at this point, hopefully, everything went well. >> have to be proud of what we saw there at that hospital last night. lori bordonaro, thank you. we're continuing to monitor the aftermath of sandy after the storm slammed into jersey shore last night near atlantic city. new jersey alone, more than two million people right now without power. could take at least until tomorrow for officials just to assess the damage. newark liberty airport shut down as can you imagine. accounting for some of the 12,000 flights canceled in this region. danielle lee joins us now from the southern tip of new jersey in cape mae. danielle, what you are seeing this morning? >> reporter: good morning. we're getting tossed around by

wind from sandy. that is the main problem here. sometimes it's hard to stand. it is almost as if the rains from yesterday today are being replaced with wind and off in the distance we're hearing clattering. when we were in the hotel, if you take a look, all the windows in our hotel here in cape mae have held. that is a lot better than large parts of coastal new jersey can say. they're going to be waking up underwater. some of the damage we're hearing about in atlantic city where parts of that famous boardwalk were destroyed and people tried to stay in a shelt tler had to be rescued late last night. thousands of people are going to be waking up without power. many roads throughout new jersey are closed. it won't be until the sunrises that they're able to get a sense of where is the damage? where is it safe to travel? really, life son hold here. many people hunkered down inside waiting to see what the sunrise brings in terms of damage. but early estimates are putting it somewhere between $10 and $20

billion. that could make one of the costliest in u.s. history. reporting live in cape mae, new jersey, danielle leigh, back to you. >> thank you, danielle leigh there in cape mae, new jersey. we won't really know until the sun comes up just how bad this is. and cape mae and across the region. still ahead this morning on "way too early," we'll have another update on the status of sandy. it is still pushing through with heavy weather. which areas may be next to feel the impact? plus, disaster politics. thou major weather event pushed the presidential race to the back burner now seven days away from election day. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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[ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. it is 5:46 in the morning. that is a different shot than we usually show you at this time every day. that's from the top of our building here at 30 rock looking south. large portions of downtown without electricity this morning. one week from today, if you can believe it, americans will pick their president. politics far from the minds of most people today. the president canceled his appearance yesterday in orlando. one that was supposed to be alongside bill clinton. president clinton taking it solo. the president returned to washington to monitor sandy. in youngstown, ohio, joe biden stepped into join former president clinton on stage.

both men fired up over a new ad by the romney campaign claiming that automaker jeep is planning to send american jobs to china. that's a claim that chrysler has plainly said is untrue. >> this morning before he left florida and went back to washington, he said, you know, of all the things governor romney has said, that probably hurts my feelings the most. he said you know, i never had any money when i was a kid. and the first new car i ever owned i was 30 years old and it was a jeep. i would never move jeep to china. now it turns out that jeep is reopening in china because they made so much money here they can afford to do it and they are going on with their plans here. they put out a statement today saying it was the biggest load of bull in the world that they would ever consider shutting down their american operations.

they are roaring in america thanks to people like the people of ohio. >> he's running an ad in this state saying that, saying that president obama made the companies go bankrupt is now -- gave the industry the italian who's are selling it to the chinese. whoa. whoa. as we say in my faith, bless me father for i have sinned. i mean what are you talking about? i have never seen anything like that. it's an absolutely patently false assertion. >> the obama campaign countered with an auto ad of its own to drive the message home.

>> i'm barack obama and a prove this message. >> when the auto industry faced collapse, mitt romney turned his back, even the conservative detroit news criticized romney for his wrong headedness on the bailout and now after romney's false claim of jeep outsourcing to china, chrysler itself refuted romney's lie. the truth, jeep is adding jobs in ohio. mitt romney on ohio jobs, wrong then -- >> let detroit go bankrupt -- >> -- dishonest now. >> the obama campaign arranged for president clinton to make stops in minnesota, iowa, colorado, ohio, virginia, new hampshire, and wisconsin all before this race is over. we've got a new "washington post"/abc tracking poll to show you likely voters nationwide. this is the story. another poll telling us the same thing. this race is deadlocked nationally. in florida, a cnn/orc poll has romney up a point. of course, that's within the margin of error. they are tied there. in north carolina where democrats held their convention

last month has it tied 45%-45%. you can e-mail me at "waytooearly and let me know what you're seeing outside your window this morning. tell me about the storm and how you're dealing with sandy. at the top of the hour with "morning joe," much more on the fallout. the storm impacting the east coast for what could be days and weeks to come. and when we come back here, we'll check out david letterman and jimmy fallon hosting their respective shows here in new york last night but doing it with no audience for its own safety. that clip whether "wn "way too comes back. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need?

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the latest figures from the associated press show the death toll from hurricane sandy at this moment at 16 here in the united states. fatalities spanning from north carolina up to connecticut. according to the national hurricane center, the deadliest category 1 hurricane on record is hurricane diane, which claimed 184 lives when it made land fall in north carolina and made its way to southern new england in august of 1955. let's get another check on sandy now from bill karins. >> i think it's safe to say none of us will ever forget this storm and we'll remember it and have our stories on how we made it through it. our memory will be down at the battery as that tide was coming in last night. we were down there all afternoon. it doesn't look that bad.

maybe predictions won't be as bad as expected. all of a sudden, the water came up. at the same time, the skies cleared a little bit. and then on other side of the bay towards staten island, towards liberty island and jersey we saw the flashes in the air. that was the transformers blowing. i could literally see staten island going dark. i could see areas of jersey going dark. it was just so surreal as the water was moving. i barely made it out of there in time. a lot of people got stranded down there as the water came up very quickly. as far as the winds went, these were the peak winds in the big cities. that's why we have so many downed trees in the suburbs. even higher than this in the 70 mile per hour range. long island had the highest gusts. islip at 90. one of the highest ones we've seen. it's still a breezy, windy morning. not even half as bad as what we dealt with yesterday afternoon and evening. we still have gusts out there of 23 in philadelphia. 38 in new york. i don't think we'll get much more damage from the winds during the day to day. there could be always the danger of a couple tree limbs that came

loose yesterday falling down. that will be the biggest concern. winds in new england have gone light. you're just fine there today. breezy around washington, d.c. and baltimore and ocean city, maryland and virginia beach. again, shouldn't cause you any problems. so willie, the only last thing, it is cold. it is raw. we have seven million people without power. we need some nice warmer weather for the cleanup restoration. it doesn't look like it really moves in here in earnest until about thursday afternoon or friday. >> the thing to think about is the sun is not up for another 90 minutes. we still have no idea how bad this is yet until we get sunlight. bill, thanks so much. i want to show you something from last it in. jimmy fallon in this building, david letterman a few blocks away. made it through hurricane sandy and did their shows last night here in new york while the storm swept outside their studios. but as can you see in those pictures, both fallon and letterman hosted to an empty theater sending their audiences home so that they would not be in harm's way.

here's dave last night. >> we felt like we would be putting the audience at jeopardy if they had to sit through the show. i said, hell, we've been doing that for 30 years. >> look out. >> i got up this morning and turned on the radio and listened for the talk show closings. i have no luck. talk show closings. >> yeah? >> that's a play on -- >> wait a minute. i think i hear people banging at the door of the theater demanding to come in. wait a minute! we don't want to miss this. the storm has stopped the presidential campaign so at least some good has come of it. all right. stop. all right. >> you know it's always fun to go woo! i'm that guy. >> okay. power outages could break -- wreak havoc on election day. don't worry, republicans have backup crooked voting machines. wow.

>> dave letterman, thank you. we needed that last night. still ahead on a w"way too earl why you're awake. that's moments away. [ male announcer ] free windows 8 training from your son. can you help me with something? nope! good talk. [ male announcer ] or free windows 8 training when you buy a computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. ♪ [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleep-aid. [ snoring ] [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] it's not for colds, it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] because sleep is a beautiful thing.

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